Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Early Life

She was born Harriet Elisabeth Beecher on June 14, 1811. Her father had been a respected minister, whose career later brought her to Ohio. She received an education of unusually high quality for a woman at the time. In Ohio she met her husband, a professor at the seminary where her father was president.

Ohio Influences

While residing in Ohio, Stowe met Black people who had been physically attacked over competition for jobs with Irish immigrants. She also witnessed a series of debates on slavery which were held at her father's seminary.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Stowe is most known for writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. The story used fiction to educate white northerners about the cruelty of slavery. The main character, Uncle Tom, is portrayed as having a noble character. He is also shown enduring righteous suffering, which her readers would have recognized as similar to that of Christ. The emotional impact of the novel galvanized support for the abolitionist movement.

The Plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin

The story follows an enslaved person known as Uncle Tom. When he saves the life of a little white girl, her father purchases him. After developing a close friendship, the young girl passes but first asks her father to free their enslaved people. Before the father can follow through, he dies. Tom winds up with a cruel new master who kills him for aiding people that escaped slavery.

Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin

The first part of the book was published as a serial in a magazine in 1851. In 1852 the book version appeared with the full title of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. The book version was a huge success, selling 300,000 in a year. It would continue on to become the highest seller novel of the entire century. Beyond the United States, the book was also very popular in England.

Fig.2 - Unle Tom's Cabin Illustration

Inspirations for Uncle Tom's Cabin

Stowe often stated that a religious vision had inspired the book. She claimed that while taking communion she had seen the image of a dying enslaved African. However, there were many more down to Earth inspirations for the book.

Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a large inspiration for Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. The act put the federal government in charge of capturing people who escaped enslavement. It extended even into states which did not allow slavery. It created strict penalties for anyone helping people who escaped enslavement.

Underground Railroad

Despite the threats of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Stowe and her husband were part of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a network of people who helped to hide people escaping slavery. Their home is still preserved as a landmark because they used it to hide people escaping enslavement. Writings still exist of one person relating their time hiding in Stowe's home as they escaped slavery.

Death of Child

One of Stowe's children passed away at only eighteen months old. She often felt that the helplessness she experienced in the situation made her relate to the helplessness of enslaved people.

Anti-Tom Literature

In response to the popularity of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a variety of works known as "Anti-Tom Literature" was released. This literature was created by authors in favor of human enslavement, outraged by Uncle Tom's Cabin. These novels depicted a world where Black people were incapable of taking care of themselves and benefitted from being under their benevolent masters. The genre faded with the abolition of slavery, now considered propaganda.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Other Books

Uncle Tom's Cabin may have launched Stowe's literary career, but it continued on for many more works afterward. In all, she released 30 books. Most of her works were fictional novels but she did venture into writing non-fiction. Stowe released various articles and even three full-length travel books.

Fig.3 - A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Cover

A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin

For the disputes over Uncle Tom's Cabin raised by those favoring human enslavement, Stowe had an answer. The answer came in the form of a book entitled A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. For the book, she put together various documents and personal accounts, illustrating how real her depiction of slavery was. The book showed that the horror she wrote about was not just fiction.

Other Views

Stowe was interested in many of the social issues of her day besides human enslavement. She was an advocate for the rights of women, which she compared to anti-slavery struggles. Although she declined to ally herself with some of the leading women's suffragists, she later moved towards some women's suffrage ideas in some of her writings.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Accomplishments

The writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which brought the horrors of slavery to a white and northern audience, was Stowe's greatest accomplishment. It would not be her only success though. Despite being on the opposite side of the Civil War, the Governor of Florida gave her an award for aiding Florida's post-war growth by positively describing it in her literature. She also became editor of a women's magazine, Hearth and Home.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Significance

For her contributions to the abolitionist movement, Stowe is well remembered to this day. Several of the homes she lived in are now landmarks. She was even invited to the White House to meet with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. This meeting gave rise to a famous quote from Lincoln that first appeared in a biography of Stowe written by her son which some historians debate the reality of.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Death

Harriet Beech Stowe died at age 85 on July 1, 1896. The last ten years of her life had been spent suffering from dementia. Although she had lived all over the country, she returned to her birth state of Connecticut before she died.